Great team faces ultimate Tests

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Who said playing for a draw is boring? Australia's epic effort
to deny England victory at Old Trafford completes an extraordinary
sequence of three great Tests. The clash between the world's top
two teams has exceeded the highest expectations. After a run of
eight Ashes series wins to Australia, the battle for supremacy in
this longed-for contest comes down to the last two Tests. The
Australians' status has rarely been challenged so fiercely in the
decade since they deposed the great West Indians. They had to draw
on all their reserves of courage, self-belief and ability to bat
out the fifth day of the third Test. The Australians have shown the
qualities of champions many times, but this series raises the
question of whether we are watching the last hurrah of a great
team.

England is the fast-rising challenger that Australia was a
decade and a half ago. Since then, several Australians have had
great careers. This team has four batsmen with 4000 or more Test
runs and averages above 50. England has none. In this Test, Shane
Warne became the first bowler to take 600 wickets. Glenn McGrath
took his 500th in the first Test. (England's best has 164.) But
such evidence of greatness is also evidence of ageing players. The
clash with the Old Country, once cautious about blooding young
players, involves an ironic role reversal: Australia had eight
players in this match aged 30 or older. The English XI had only two
and its average age of 27 is four years less than Australia's. The
Australians began the series with the same bowling quartet (average
age 33) that played the first Ashes Test of 1997. England's top
four, aged between 26 and 28, are in their prime.

Australia has made tough decisions on generational change before
and may have to make them again to win the series. (The cricket
fever sweeping England also challenges Australian cricket to
attract future champions in competition with other sports.) The
unfamiliar pressure being applied by England is exposing frailties
in the Australian team, which calls for a frank self-appraisal. In
1995, after the West Indies' first loss in 30 series over 15 years,
their captain, Richie Richardson, refused to accept Australia was
the better team. West Indian cricket paid dearly for its delusions.
Australian cricket is built on sounder foundations, but no nation
should ever regard the No. 1 ranking as its natural entitlement.
The Australians will have to learn from their mistakes - in
selection, attitude and tactics - to retain the Ashes. Even if they
achieve the sweetest of victories in adversity, the Australian team
will still have to find a way to regenerate without several
once-in-a-generation cricketers.